In today's information society, individuals, academia, government and industry have come to rely on access to and storage of vast amounts of electronic information. With an ever increasing generation of such information comes the need to protect it from loss due to, for example, fire, theft and memory loss. Indeed, corporations go to great length to protect this information to protect, for example, their confidential information such as trade secrets, industry forecasts, employee files and the like.
The current practice for large organizations is to provide a separate computer room in which to house electronic data storage equipment. This computer room is typically protected from fire hazards through the use of halon systems which can be extremely expensive. Further, the computer room usually has a vault located adjacent to the room where electronic data stored on electronic media such as magnetic tapes can be stored during non-use. Of course, this requires personnel to continually move the magnetic tapes from the vault and install the tape in the electronic device capable of reading the tape thereby to allow access to the information stored on the tape by an authorized user. Once the user no longer needs this particular tape, the tape is returned to the vault for safe-keeping.
On the other end of the spectrum is the desk top computer, generally referred to as a "PC". There are current devices available, or at least disclosed, which addresses the security issue as it relates to "PCs". These devices tend to protect, not only data which is stored on floppy disks, but also the entire "PC" itself. However, the "PC" along with the security device is capable of being removed to another area, although an alarm is sounded.
The problem arises, however, in the intermediate situation where, for example a firm is operating on a local area network. These firms generally cannot afford the expense associated with the installation and use of a secured, fire protected computer room and vault with associated support personnel to allow access to the stored electronic data. These firms are also in need of a storage system which does not rely on protecting the individual work station (e.g., the "PC"), but rather the electronic data storage device. In a local area network situation, for example, the data is typically stored on a host system located at a remote location from the "PC". The security device used for the "PC" application will generally not be adequate because the host system with related electronic storage equipment is too large to fit within the "PC" style security device.
The present invention overcomes the problems in the previous practice by utilizing an apparatus which can provide access to the data by authorized personnel but upon receiving a signal from a remote sensor of an adverse condition effectively seals off the electronic storage equipment from the outside environment thereby to prevent data loss.